


you know you're cute, right?

by pastisregret



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, One-Sided Attraction, but does one want more??? hmmm idk, they're friends! :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21517480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastisregret/pseuds/pastisregret
Summary: “It was never this complicated before.But now it was, and suddenly that changed everything Chloé did.”
Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 21
Kudos: 301





	you know you're cute, right?

**Author's Note:**

> haha lara what if i posted smth... while you were asleep... so you could wake up to this n be happy... haha just kidding... unless-

“Seriously, Dupain-Cheng? _You_ and _Adrien_?”

Marinette rolled her eyes, looking over at Chloé from the other side of her bed.

“Yes, Chlo,” she responds. “Adrien and I.”

“How long has this going on for?” she asks, a bitter taste forming in her mouth even while she prompted the question. Lounging in her room with Marinette almost always led into that, but for some reason Chloé would continue to seek those days out, no matter how often the topic switched to Marinette and her list of lovers.

Lovers that, sadly, never seemed to stop growing.

“Only a few days.” Hand coming up to blow at her nails, Marinette pressed her lips together and let a steady stream of air leave her mouth, keeping eye contact with Chloé as she did so. “It’s nothing, for now, but who knows? Maybe all those years having a crush on him will pay off.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Chloé says. Snorting, she grabs her stuffed ladybug pillow and fiddles with the antennas, eyebrow quirked. “I guess you can’t get very far with all that stuttering, after all.”

Marinette laughs, a sound that grows more pleasant with each arrival. “As _if_ I still do that. It’s been years since I embarrassed myself like that, Chloé. I’m all grown up now, remember?”

Eyes moving to Marinette’s chest, Chloé felt her cheeks warm up. Marinette was right. She _had_ grown up, in a most favorable way.

Looking down to her pillow, Chloé did an unreasonably hard tug on the stuffed animal’s antennas, one that seemed as pent up as it was freeing.

“I just thought that maybe you’d be over him,” she says, voice low. “You were, like, fourteen when you liked him. We just celebrated your nineteenth last month, Mari. How can you be so sure?”

“Well, teenage crushes never really go away, do they?”

 _No_ , Chloé answers, silently. _They don’t._

“And sure,” Marinette continues, “I haven’t really thought about the idea of dating him for a while, but that’s only because it’s never been on the table before. Now, maybe we actually have a chance.”

“Maybe,” Chloé says.

“In any case, there’s no telling where this’ll go. We’re just texting here and there, nothing really serious.” Smiling, Marinette pulled out her phone, twisting her body so Chloé could watch the screen the same time as her. Marinette had practically scooted her way over, and pressed close to her body, Chloé almost felt bad for her stuffed animal with the tight grip it was trapped in.

A long string of messages lay before Chloé’s eyes, starting on some random date she usually wouldn’t bother to remember and wouldn’t forget. Adrien and Marinette, with dozens of text bubbles detailing their journey from friends to… _something_.

“You don’t even like using emojis,” Chloé says, nose scrunching up with her first observance. “I can’t believe you’re using them while you talk to him.”

“I never said I didn’t like them.”

“Oh, forgive me. You said you _hated_ them.”

“Laugh it up,” Marinette says, moving her phone away from her gaze. “But I bet you would do the same thing with someone you liked.”

Again, she was correct. Chloé had just recently switched the way she did her eye makeup after Marinette commented soft brown tones complimented her more as opposed to the bright blue that had been her trademark and she had been using one nude lip gloss for the past year too, swiping it on with every visit Marinette gave her. It had been an unconscious switch in her brain, one that urged her to continue pleasing, even if she wasn’t clear on _why_.

It was never this complicated before.

But now it was, and suddenly that changed everything Chloé did.

“In any case, it’s not a big deal,” Marinette says. “We’re just talking. What good can come out of that?”

Probably nothing, that Chloé knew. She had been by Marinette’s side for just a little over a year now, and there had been little to feed the idea that anything would result.

Then again, the twinkle in Marinette’s eyes as she tapped out a response to Adrien was enough to send her on edge.

One week later, watching Marinette shimmy into a dress Chloé had stored in the back of her closet, she realizes she was right to worry.

“Do I look nice in this?” Marinette asks, turning her back to the mirror and facing Chloé. The back was still unzipped, and the mirror’s reflection bore into Chloé’s mind as her eyes watched the long strip of skin leading to the small of her back. Or at least, for as long as she could provide herself before meeting Marinette’s gaze.

“It’s cute,” she answers, before adding a quick, “I looked better in it, though.”

Laughing, Marinette rolled her eyes. “I bet you did.”

It _was_ a nice dress though, and one Chloé was glad to have picked off the rack during her last shopping spree. A tight silk number with a low neckline, it would have been enough to drive Chloé crazy had it not also been in her favorite shade of red. Ladybug’s color, if she had to be specific.

Although, it seemed like Marinette wore that shade just as well as Ladybug did, if not the slightest bit better.

Finally darting her eyes away from Marinette, Chloé leaned forward, elbows digging into her upper thighs and hands coming to support her head. “So,” she starts, “what time is this _magical_ date going to begin?”

“He’s picking me up at seven.”

“So early?”

“Dinner reservation,” she answers. “Somehow he got us a table at this one spot that’s booked from now to November 27th.”

“That’s not so bad. Kinda underwhelming, if anything.”

“Of _next year_ ,” Marinette finishes, eyebrows raising with the last words.

Scoffing, Chloé rolled her eyes. “You act like the Bourgeois name isn’t just as powerful. I could take you out to a restaurant just as classy, if not _better_.”

“I’ll take you up on that date one day,” Marinette says, laughing as she turned back to look at the mirror. Making eye contact through the reflection, she gestured to her dress. “Zip me up?”

Chloé pushes herself off the bed as soon as she registers the question, moving quick and fast. With a gentle hand holding the bottom of the dress, she guides the zipper upwards until it stops, careful not to catch it on Marinette’s skin.

“Chlo, thank you so much – Wait. What lipstick are you wearing?” Marinette asks, before spinning around to face her. Blinking, Chloé pulled her head back.

“I-It’s new,” she manages to say. She hadn’t gotten the chance to put on the typical nude she wore, and instead had on a bright red pigment painting her lips, the same color as the dress. It wasn’t new by any means, but to Marinette could be compared to the latest in a makeup line drop the way she stared intensely.

“That’s what I thought. I’ve never seen it on you before. Is it flavored?”

“A little.”

Lifting her hand up, Marinette’s thumb brushes on the bottom of her lip, coloring her finger in the color. Bringing it to her lips, she sucked down on her thumb for a second, tinting her lips just a bit when she pulled away.

“Cherry,” Marinette says, smiling as she looks at Chloé. “Nice.”

In that moment, she considers risking it all. She considers closing the distance between them, allowing Marinette to further explore the flavor. She considers throwing out all her inhibitions in favor of giving into the thoughts that ran through her mind, kept at bay for no one’s sake but her own.

Then, looking down, Chloé cleared her throat. She caught her eye on Marinette’s watch, a Cartier one she gifted her on her birthday.

It was a quarter to seven.

“Well, you don’t want to keep him waiting,” she says, taking a step back. “I guess we better find a pair of heels to go with that dress.”

There’s a sense of relief when Marinette leaves, asking Chloé to wish her good luck and promising breakfast with her and Alya in the morning to hash out the details. That hidden exhale leaving her body, causing Chloé to walk around her room and kick around the various shoes she had strewn about, sending them into an untidy pile that grew the longer she paced. The slouch in her back now, shoulders relaxing and letting go of the unnoticed tension that existed before.

There’s some disappointment too, but she chooses to ignore that. Chloé doesn’t think it’s something important enough to focus on, not for now.

**Author's Note:**

> mari-cheres on tumblr


End file.
